Article excerpt

RATHER than being a agreat burdena the carbon tax was a price worth paying for the environment, according to Greens Fisher candidate Garry Claridge.

The operations research scientist has crunched the numbers on a typical small grocery business with a $1.5million turnover and found the tax impact to be only $0.0005 in every dollar.

But rather than blaming profiteering for claims that the cost is significantly higher, he said many business owners simply didnat understand the impact and were whacking on margins to cover costs that did not exist.

LNP Fisher candidate Mal Brough has described the Coalition decision to scrap the carbon tax as one that has alifted a great burden from the shoulders of families, households, retirees, businesses and pensionersa.

At a Carbon Tax Forum Mr Brought hosted in March examples were given that showed refrigerant gas costs had risen from $65 a kilogram to $360 a kilogram.

Mr Claridge disputes the figures, saying delivery charges are being increased on the basis of the tax impacts on fuel, provisions that donat kick in until July, 2014. …